


On a Road to Wherever

by bantha fodder (banthafodder)



Category: The Changeover - Margaret Mahy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-23
Updated: 2006-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-25 07:31:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1639043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/banthafodder/pseuds/bantha%20fodder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura, after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On a Road to Wherever

**Author's Note:**

> With thanks to meyerlemon
> 
> Written for Brighid

 

 

"The first thing," Chris declares, "is a cheque to the phone company."

"Well, you're a bit forward," Kate says. "Not here five minutes and already issuing demands."

"I knew it," Laura says.

Chris shakes his hands in the air. "We need to communicate with the outside world!" he declares.

Kate leans forward and kisses him. "We've gone fine without," she says. "But if you must."

Laura shakes her head.

**

She walks through the street and catalogues the things she sees; omens and street signs and Jacko, jumping in puddles. She thinks about writing Sorry a letter, but she thinks and he's there, anyway.

"Excuse me, Chant," he says, a plane ride away, stuck in a bog with birds flying overhead. "I could have been naked."

"That's a shame," she replies. "I was hoping you were."

She laughs, and she feels: affection; curiosity; soggy.

"Something specific I can help you with?" Sorry asks.

"No," she replies, and imagines his hand, warm on her back.

"Don't tempt me," he says.

She grins all the way home.

**

Her fifteenth birthday falls on a Thursday. "Let me take you all out to dinner, oh beauteous one," Chris says. "It's not every day you turn fifteen."

"But not every day is F + C, either," she replies, and gets out of the car. Jacko and Kate wave until the car is out of sight, and Laura almost trips from walking backwards.

Later, Kate comes home with F + C. Chris sulks, and his presence in the house is still new enough to make Laura worry, but Jacko mashes chips into his hair and then Chris is laughing too hard to care, and Laura knows it'll all be okay.

**

The phone rings, and Laura jumps. "Yay!" yells Jacko, and he races for the phone but he's still too short. He starts to pile books up; stands on them and makes to jump but Laura reaches over his head and answers the phone.

"Hello?" she laughs, over the sound of his boos.

"Laura." Winter's voice crackles through the phone, and Laura shushes Jacko. "How are you?"

"I'm good. We have a phone," she says, and rolls her eyes.

"Yes," Winter replies. "Sorry let us know. Miryam and I want you to come to tea with us," she says, and Laura uhms and makes excuses but agrees, because there's no other answer she can give.

After she hangs up, Jacko tries to climb her leg. "My phone!" he yells, and she kneels down to his level; blows raspberries on his cheeks.

**

She brushes her teeth as she thinks about the phone call; blinks her eyes and finds Sorry brushing his teeth too. "Sorry," she says, and she's not sure if it's apology or acknowledgment.

"I'd have put on my good pyjamas if I'd known you were coming for a visit," Sorry says, after he spits into the sink.

"Glad you haven't found some wildlife expert to replace me, then."

Sorry smiles, sadly. "Too late for that, Chant," he says. Reaches out as if to touch her and draws his hand back at the last moment. "I've already got your mark."

**

"What was your reason?" Laura asks.

"My reason for what?" Winter asks.

"For wanting me to change."

"Oh," says Winter. "Don't worry about it." She stirs her tea and looks out the window.

Laura hums, and drops the subject. She'll find out in the end.

**

"So," says Nicky. "Barry Hamilton likes you."

"You said that last year."

"It's still true," Nicky insists. "You just weren't interested last year."

"No high school boy keeps his interest that long," Laura says, and thinks of Sorry, more than just a high school boy.

"How would you know?"

Laura shrugs: "Just do." Nicky looks at her; their gazes meet, but Nicky looks away first.

**

She hears the wind, sometimes. "He's long gone," Sorry says, but she doesn't have his confidence.

She keeps her hands close to her body, and offers no invites.

She makes sure Jacko does the same.

**

She sits her school certificate, watches Nicky two aisles across and three seats down. She thinks, briefly, of Sorry; "Get out of here and concentrate, there's a darling," he whispers, and pushes her out of his head. She was never serious, anyway, about coming top, and she writes until she thinks her hand might fall off, and they're all her own words but she's happy all the same.

**

She wakes up Christmas morning with her father and Julia and her half-brother; she sings nonsense under the tree and laughs good-naturedly when Julia frowns. She's hugging her father goodbye whilst Julia finds money for the bus, when the quiet of her father's fairly expensive suburb is broken by the rumble of a Vespa.

She turns, and Sorry waves, a spare helmet in his hand.

Her father frowns. "Laura," he starts; she kisses his cheek.

"It won't all fit on there anyway," she says. "I love you."

"You can't carry all this," she says to Sorry out on the driveway.

"I just came for the loot," Sorry explains. "You can still catch the bus."

They reshuffle and repack, and ride precariously back to Gardendale.

"How are the birds?" she asks, as if they are old friends who haven't spoken in some time.

"They're still there," he replies. "And they're moving me closer after Christmas. I might even be able to come visit."

"That might be nice," she says, mildly; rests her cheek against his back and hums into his jacket the whole ride home.

**

The sixth form is hard but not too hard; she complains to Kate about maths, and Chris helps her with English. He covers her essays with red pen; she complains, but she doesn't really mean it.

**

"There are no vampires, or demons," she says, when he visits.

"What do you mean?"

"I just thought there would be more."

"You could always see them, Chant," he says. "Just because you've changed doesn't mean that they have."

**

She has tea with Winter; she learns the shape of her bones and the shape of the sky. Once she faints, and Miryam catches her, her too short school skirt riding up her thighs.

"Don't work too hard," Miryam says. "It'll come."

"I want it now," Laura whines, though she knows it is unattractive, and she watches Miryam and Winter exchange a look.

**

When she turns sixteen, Kate gives her a kiss, and her father insists on taking her out for dinner. "Only the best for my girl," he says, and she thinks, _I didn't expect you to stay interested for so long._

**

On a school excursion to the beach, she wanders off and meets a young woman, kneeling in the sand. "Can I help you?" she asks.

The young woman smiles; rests her hand on Laura's wrist, held close to her body, and Laura feels the heat curl up from her toes. "Oh," she says. The touch of the succubus is warm against her skin, and for a moment, Laura knows what it's thinking. "Oh." She thinks of boys she sees every day, warm and hard and inviting, and steps away.

The succubus smiles. "Think about it," it says, and disappears down the beach.

At school Barry Hamilton smiles at her from across the way, and she thinks about the things she's missing out on; soft skin and rough skin and boys her own age.

**

She starts the letter three times, but never gets past _Dear Sorry_ ; when she closes her eyes, he looks at her and she drops the pen. She stops thinking about the beach.

"It's a good thing I'm coming to visit," he says. "Who knows what else you get up to when I'm away."

**

He stands by the gate, watches for her, and she thinks that he's never been so obvious. Sixth formers and Sevenths look at him askew; they're old enough to remember his face, but not old enough to have been friends, and his presence is unexpected.

She feels her stomach flip, knows that she was wrong to think she didn't want him.

"This is different," she says, as she gets into the car.

He hums his agreement. "I like some variety."

At Janua Caeli, he invites her in. "You tried to break up with me," he accuses her as they stand in the door to his study.

"I know," she says. She meets his eyes. "I'm not sorry for thinking about it."

"No, I don't suppose you would be. Still it hurt, a little."

"Well, then, I'm sorry for that," she says; leans forward and kisses his cheek, first, and then the corner of his lips.

"Chant," he says, his voice soft. "You don't have to do that."

"No," she says, "I do."

He looks at her, and she smiles.

"Invite me in," she says, and he does.

END

 


End file.
